Here is once again the fruit of sharing among MSs Collectors. Thank you my Friend.. !

After some years of studies of Ms 1203 on the site of Mister JHP, I finally caught a full color digiscan of Lansdowne Ms 1203. I really appreciated being able to study and to work from this digital B&W version of Mister JHP on Twilitt Grotto; but now, I am really glad to be able to browse this manuscript in color mode.. It's very well penned and easy to read (just the once will not hurt)..

This manuscript was one used by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers in his edition of the Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis) (London: George Redway, 1889). According to Mathers, "1203 Lansdowne MSS. is 'The Veritable Keys of Solomon translated from the Hebrew into the Latin language by the Rabbin Abognazar (?Aben Ezra).' It is in French, exquisitely written in printing letters, and the Pentacles are carefully drawn in coloured inks. Though containing similar matter to the others, the arrangement is utterly different; being all in one book, and not even divided into chapters."

In fact the arrangement is irrelevant since it is utterly different in content as well, aside from some of the pentacles at the end of the book.

It is puzzling why Mathers inserted random excerpts of it into his book, which otherwise follows the French Colorno editions quite closely. In so doing, Mathers omitted instructions which were integral to the Abognazar method; the result served only to confuse and complicate the operations of the Colorno method.

Some of the sections that Mathers omitted were: Preparation of the sword, dagger, penknife, ink bottle, cup for collecting blood, burner, fire, incense, staff for operations of Venus, second staff for other operations, garment, exorcism of the victim, a long elaboration of spirit names and seals, ten names of God, 3 experiments for love, 12 rings for binding spirits, 28 mansions of the moon, bulk of the pentacles.

Most of Mathers' omissions can be attributed to the fact that the Colorno manuscripts have corresponding (though quite different) instructions. Mathers also for some reason omitted experiments dealing with love magic. And of course he was very reluctant to include instructions dealing with ritual sacrifice.

Besides elements which are unique to this work, it draws on elements of Agrippa's De occulta philosophia, Paracelsus' Archidoxes of Magic, Petro de Abano's Heptameron, the Magical Calendar, and Arbatel Of Magic.

The calligraphy appears to be the same as Lans. 1203, and both appear to have been executed by 'F. F. FYOT.' Because each of these two manuscripts contain errors not found in the other it is likely that both were copied from a common ancestor, and not one from the other. In general the two texts coincide exactly, but there are also many places where the wording of the two vary slightly. Since the two versions are too close to make a retranslation likely, the apparent explanation for the differences is simply creativity on the part of the scribe.

The most striking thing about these manuscripts, as noted by both Mathers and the British Library cataloguer, is the great beauty of the calligraphy and artwork. There is also a total absence of corrections in spite of the occasional errors and especially dislocations. These become especially obvious when comparing the two manuscripts. The scribe evidently had an overriding concern with keeping the pages beautiful.